Beneficial effect of consolidative radiotherapy for patients with lymphoma and skeletal involvement

The objectives of this study were to analyze the clinical features of patients with bone involved lymphoma and identify the prognostic factors and to explore the optimized treatment strategy for bone involved lymphoma. A total of 1948 patients with lymphoma in our cancer center from September 2006 to October 2017 were retrospectively evaluated. Among these, 109 patients with skeletal involvement in lymphoma were enrolled. According to the pathologic subtypes, the patients were divided into 3 subgroups: classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL), B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), and T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (T-NHL). The clinical characteristics and overall survival (OS) of 3 groups of patients were reviewed, and the prognostic factors were analyzed. There were 9 (3 unifocal, 6 multifocal) patients with primary bone lymphoma. The 5-year OS of cHL, B-NHL, and T-NHL patients was 88.24%, 54.09%, and 61.58%, respectively. Advanced stage, elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), age above 60, high International Prognostic Index score, and treatment without radiotherapy for the bone involved were significant poor prognostic factors for OS of all patients in univariate analysis. There was a trend toward better OS not only in limited-stage but also in advanced-stage patients with radiotherapy for the bone involved compared with the patients without radiotherapy. Elevated LDH level and age above 60 were the independent unfavorable prognostic factor in multivariate analysis. Elevated LDH level and age above 60 predict the poor prognosis of patients with bone involvement. The potential for long-term survival suggests that additional consolidative radiotherapy for the site of skeleton involvement may have a better chance of long-term success.